America needs to talk about a lot more than just guns

SAN DIEGO – After the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Fla., Americans are eager to talk about guns.

Half the country seems to be saying that firearms deserve all the blame for tragedies like these, while the other half is trying to exonerate guns completely. Both arguments are wrong.

Not that Americans shouldn’t talk about guns – and gun control. We should. Now that 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz has been charged with killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, this is a good time to do it.

We need to keep high-powered rifles out of the hands of the troubled, alienated and mentally ill by requiring those who buy them to take a psychological test. We also must limit the number of guns bought by one person in a given year; ban the AR-15, which isn’t really intended for hunting unless you’re hunting humans; raise the legal age to buy a gun to 21; and strengthen background checks, as President Trump reportedly wants to do.

We also need to be more aggressive in monitoring gun sales to individuals who fit the profile. When the FBI pursues mass murderers and serial killers, agents often use a profile that suggests the suspects are white males. So, just like they have done with Muslim Americans in terrorism cases, the FBI should keep a registry of white males who stockpile high-powered weapons and subject them to extra scrutiny.

Americans do need to talk about guns. Yet, while we’re distracted by that conversation, here’s a list of other really important things we’re still not talking about:

Whether America’s youth have gradually become desensitized to violence by blockbuster movies;

Why our country is so bad at detecting individuals with mental health issues and getting them the help they need;

Why some parents do a bad job of keeping tabs on their child’s behavior or keeping them away from dangerous things;

Whether a fascination with guns is its own kind of psychosis, which distorts reality and trivializes lethalness;

Why so many of these mass shootings are committed by white males with troubled backgrounds;

How the red flags might have been brighter if, instead of a white male, the culprit were a Mexican, Muslim or MS-13’er;

How it is that the FBI bungled its investigation of Cruz, who was practically begging to be arrested;

How it is that, more than a year ago, a social worker from the Florida Department of Children and Families declared Cruz to be no threat;

How a teenager with lots of behavioral problems could so easily buy an AR-15 military-style rifle and ammunition;

Whether any number of these tragedies can break the vice grip that the National Rifle Association has on Congress;

And how we need to stop reflexively saying “something has to be done” and actually do something.

But what can we do? Looking over that list, there is a lot that needs to be done – by many people and on multiple fronts. You can also see why Americans focus on guns. Some of the other issues are too difficult, too sensitive or too close to home.